This is the other thing I made for the Quiet Desperation “viewing party” (I’m fancy!). I got the original recipe for the meat version here, but while I used the same ingredients, mine was a bit different in terms of proportions. Also, since we had vegetarians coming over, I also made a veggie one, which was equally delicious.

If you read that original post, you’ll learn that not only is this “man food,” but also that what men want is this food and for their wives to put out, then shut up so they can watch SportsCenter. Wow. That guy still exists in 2011? The “ugh, women are the worst… too bad we need them for food and sex purposes” guy? That’s even gross if he pulls the “geez, can’t you humourless cows take a joke?” thing. The audience of foodblogs is overwhelmingly female. How do you think it’s going to go over? And a lot of people would apologize for going off on a rant, but I don’t care for the culture that says women have to apologize every time they express a strong opinion. I’m certainly not sorry that attitudes like that make me angry.

BACK TO FOOD! Here’s what I did; you can, of course, do any number of things filling-wise, but remember that the thing that differentiates a stromboli from a calzone is the presence or absence of sauce (calzones have it, strombolis don’t), rather than, as I thought, whether it’s one person’s serving or not.

Method
What I did, for the veggie one, was cook the vegetable filling in advance, but you can do this right before rolling it up, I’m sure it won’t make any difference.
Heat a capful of olive oil in a pan.
Saute the onions until starting to go translucent.
Throw in the peppers and saute another couple of minutes.
Add the mushrooms and saute another couple minutes, being sure to flip them at some point so both sides get golden.
Add in the garlic and saute another minute.
Remove from the heat and either chuck them in the fridge for another day, or set them aside for later.
To make the actual stromboli, preheat the oven to 375.
Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment, or brush it lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with cornmeal.
Doing one bread loaf at a time, stretch it out to be a rectangle about 10×6″ (or bigger, if you can get your bread to stretch more without putting holes in it).
Leaving a border of about 1″ at the short ends and a little more on each long side, lay down a row of provolone slices. It’s ok to overlap a little – the bonus cheese will even itself out.
If you’re doing the veggie thing, spread out your veggie mixture along the cheese runway.
If you’re doing the meat thing, cover the cheese with the ham, then dot with pepperoni (or, you know, whatever meats you’re going to use).
Sprinkle over the toppings with oregano and basil.
Cover with mozzarella.
Now the fun part. Pull one side of the dough over the center of the fillings, then fold up the ends (it’s like rolling a burrito!) and close the other long side, and press to seal.
Brush with melted butter.
Roll the stromboli over and brush the other side with melted butter as well.
Sprinkle the tops with cornmeal.
Pop into the oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
When you take it out, be sure and use a serrated knife to slice it – it is bread, after all!

This is a terrific dish for cold weather. This is my first visit to your blog, so I’ve been browsing through your earlier entries. I really like the food and recipes you feature on your blog. I’ll be back. Have a great day. Blessings…Mary